North Vietnamese decals - I-94

 Decals for 28mm vehicles are a bit scarce. I have used a lot of Warlord or Rubicon 1/56 scale decals on 1/48-50 scale vehicles.

For North Vietnam vehicles, the I-94 set MI-106 might come in handy.

Points Of Interest markers

 As mentioned previously, I am using the Points Of Interest concept from the Zona Alfa expansion for solo gaming in Vietnam. The Points of Interest need markers on the board, and I thought that single fuel drums would be suitably subtle.

The drums are a mix of Debris of War (as used previously here), Crooked Dice and Tamiya 1/48 scale (you might be able to identify the Tamiya one from the the lettering on the lid).

To make them stand out a bit, they have numbers though in general use the numbers are not significant (POI events are generally drawn randomly from a card stack). Warlord German White turret numbers were of a suitable size.

This US Marine will have an eventful life being within three inches of a number of POIs (POIs should be at least six inches apart).

The Sniper! event card was drawn.

Sniper! Figure for a POI Event Card

I am working on a solo game using the Zona Alfa rules and the Empress Vietnam (and French Indochina) figures. The Point Of Interest system provides objectives and a degree of randomness suitable for Solo or cooperative play. The cards for Zona Alfa are fine for a post-apocalyptic environment, but lack the flavour of the Vietnam War setting.

Most of the cards are just "re-skins" of existing cards, but one of the scenes from Full Metal Jacket that stuck in my mind was the sniper. So there had to be a sniper figure (I will need a few more later). 

Currently Empress do not do any sniper figures for NVA or VC (other ranges are available, but are at a completely different scale/style/stature).

So I looked through the figures I had and selected the kneeling figure with an SKS carbine. Now a carbine firing an intermediate cartridge is not really the right sort of weapon for a sniper, needs must.

To make the sniper obvious, he needed a 'scope. The Anvil Industries Phase Rifle sprue used to come with a 'scope (now you would have to buy the weapon accessories sprue), so that was added to the SKS after removing the rear sight.

So there he is, one sniper.

Empress Vietnam War - work in progress

 It has been a while since I have really worked on the Empress VietnamWar figures.

I did decide I should base and undercoat all the NVA figures I have (okay, two had been undercoated black but I did not notice them until afterwards).

Here are 21 of them still on the paint board.

I did shuffle figures round so all the Vietnam figures now fit in a small Figures In Comfort two tray case.

You can see the two undercoated in black. There are also some of the Empress Viet Minh figures from their French Indochina range on the bottom two rows.

The second tray is for the USMC figures (when I manage to find somewhere for the - ten - interlopers the ANZACs or Force Recon will take their place).

Ng's story

Pinned down behind the statue plinth, Ng thought back to the optimistic briefing yesterday.

Their leader had come to them with the contract, escort a package from a warehouse down to the docks. No fuss, no hassle. To ensure that, the contract paid for two technicals with machine guns, both with driver, navigator, gunner and loader, plus four guards with the package in a pick up.

No sane group would interfere with such a well armed convoy for such a "low value" package, the precautions were just to expedite the delivery.

The collection went without any problems and the three vehicles had made good time. Maybe that should have been the first warning.

The plan was to swap the lead vehicle at Gustav Square, the largest open space on the route.

Just as the second technical entered the square, the first one was hit, throwing the gunner to the road.

The pick up with the package jumped as it was hit, the bonnet popping open. Simultaneously realising they were a sitting duck, all four of them had leapt from the load bed, trying to spot the firer.

The second technical lurched to a halt as one of the front tires burst, throwing the gunner forward.

Ng noticed the plume of dust from a distant building (he was sure it was a hotel of some kind) and shouted at his colleagues to fire at it. The machine gunner began spraying rounds toward the hotel.

They thought the threat was eliminated when there was an answering burst of smoke and flame on the rooftop.

Celebration was cut short when a smoke grenade burst in the load bed of the second technical. and they came under fire from the buildings behind them.

This is the first Gringo's 40 NVA figure I have assembled and painted. They are noticeably taller and chunkier than the Empress NVA, they are large compared to the Empress US Marines.

But they are nice figures if you want figures with Soviet era weapons, so this is what I am using them for.

This particular figure had a damaged sling, possibly caused by a bent barrel, so a bit of a repair was made using GreenStuff

Under Fire Miniatures Cold War Range

Under Fire Miniatures have begun releasing a range of 28mm Cold War period miniatures. They have ranges covering Soviet, German Bundeswehr, West German Polizei and East Germans troops.

I ordered a pack each of the Soviet, Bundeswehr and East Geman NVA. They arrived in a jiffy bag with the individual packs taped to a card insert, which was a nice touch.

Soviet Pack RMR2 comprises one NCO pointing the way, two PKM machine guns and an AK74.

Bundeswehr pack 1 comprises four troops armed with the G3 rifle.

The East German pack NVA1 comprises a platoon commander, radio operator, a sniper and an RPG7.

There is some mould lines, especially noticeable on the helmets, but that can be removed with careful filing. Some of the barrels are slightly bent, but I have straightened the them with no ill effect.

The following photograph shows the first three (one from each pack) on bases with an Empress Universal Soldier in woolly hat for scale.

Now to finish the bases and start the painting.